Automobile-signal.



H. C WHIGHT 61 F. W. ROSS.

AUTOMOBILE SIGNAL.

APPLICATION FILED APR.23. 191?.

Patented July 9, 1918..

2 SHEETSSHEET l H. C. WRIGHT & F W. ROSS.

AUTOMOBILE SIGNAL.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 23. 1917.

Patented July 9, 1918 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

HENRY C. WEIGHT AND FRANK W. BOSS, 012 ELMIRA, NEW YORK.

AUTOMOBILE-SIGNAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July a, was.

Application filed April 23, 1917. Serial No. 163,995.

To all whom z't'may concern:

Be it known that we, HENRY C. WRIGHT and FRANK W. Ross, citizens of the United States, and residents of Elmira, county of Chemung, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automobile-Signals, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to automobile signals and particularly to a signal which is designed to be attached to the body of the automobile just ahead of and at an appropriate distance outside of the wind-shield, either upon the left or right side in such a position that it may be plainly seen from the front, sides and rear.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive signal which may be readily attached to the automobile at a place where it will be out of the way and where it will also be easily visible to all surrounding traflic.

Another object of the invention is to provide a signal which is simple to control and the controlling switch of which is arranged so that it will not be necessary to pass from one signal through another to reach the desired position, thus avoiding confusion.

The above and other objects and the novel features of theinve/ntion will be apparent from the following description taken in con nection with the drawing which constitues a part of this application and in which Figure 1 is a partial view of an automobile showing mounted thereon a signal embodying the invention;

Figs. 2 and 3 are front and side views, respectively, of the signal embodying the invention;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the signal embodying the invention being taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows and also showing the Referring to Fig. 5, the sides, top

fastened together at the bottom. The opposite sides 10 and 11 have the letters L, R and S stamped therein, these characters being intended to designate respectively the words Left, Right and Straight. These characters are of sufiicient height so that they will be visible from a distance at either side of the vehicle whenthey are illuminated.

} The sides 10 and 11 are joined together by two horizontal partition walls 12 and 13 which are equal distances apart and at different distances from the bottom wall 14 and the top wall 15. A vertical partition wall 16 extends longitudinally of the side Walls 10 and 11 between the front and rear of the casing and is soldered or otherwise wall 14. It will thus be seen that four separate compartments 17, 18, 19 and 20 are formed in the casing. The front and rear walls of the casing consist of metal plates 21 and 22 each of which is stamped with letters L R and S similar to those intl'ie side walls and all of the letters are substantially thesame height, which height is about the same as that of the compartments in the walls of which they are stamped. The front wall 21 is faced witha plate of clear glass 23 and the rear wall 22 is faced with a plate of red glass 24. The plates 21, 23 and 22, 24 are held in place by flanges 25 at the edges of the side walls 10 and 11 and by flanges 26 at the edges of the top wall 15., At the bottom the plates 21, 23 and 22, 24 are supported in place by a detachableplate 27 which has a tongue 28 supporting the rear plates 22, 24. The securing plate 27 is held in position by a screw 29, the threaded part of which engages a nut 30 soldered to the inner side of the bottom wall 14. By .removing the screw 29 and the plate 27 the Walls 21, 23 and 22, 24, may be removed by sliding them downwardly in the grooves formed by the flanges 25 and access may then be had to the interior of any of the compartments of the signal to replace lamps or make other repairs therein.

The side walls 10 and 11 are also faced with transparent plates 31 and 32 which slide in grooves formed by flanges 33 soldered to the side Walls and held in place by the plate 27 at the bottom. The plates 31, 32 may be of'clear or colored transparent mica or glass and if they become broken maybe replaced with new ones after the plate 27 has been detached, by sliding them downwardly and out of the grooves 33. The compartments 17 and 18 have letters on each of the walls thereof so that When they are illuminated-by the electric lamps 34 and 35 the illuminated letters will be visible at the front, sidesand rear of the automobile upon which the signal is mounted, the ones-visible at the front and sides being clear or white and those visible at the rear being red col ored. The intention of the driver of the automobile to turn either to the left or to the right, depending on whether the lamp 34 or the lamp 35 1s lighted, will thus be indicated on all sides of'the signal. The

. incandescent lamp 36 mounted on the bottom the lamp 36 is lighted. The letter S in the side and front walls of the compartment 19 is intended to indicate the intention of the operator to drive straight ahead.

The lamp 37 mounted on the side wall of the compartment 20 is intended to illuminate the letter S on the rear wall of the compartment 20 and this letter will be visible from the rear of the automobile and will be 1 red colored. The letter S in this compartment is intended to indicate the driv-' ers intention to stop the automobile. The

illumination of the lamp 37 will only be visible from the rear of the signal since the wall 16 and the sides, top and bottom of the compartment 20 are opaque.

The current for lighting the lamps 34, 35, 36 and 37 may be supplied either from the lighting system for the car or by a set'of batteries. In the diagram in Fig. 4 thebattery B supplies current to one terminal of each of the lamps by the wires 39 and 40, the lamps being connected to the respective terminals by the branch wires 341', 351, 361 and 371 respectively. The other terminal of the battery B is connected by a wire 41 to a central plate 42 of the switch S which controls the lights. The switch S has a base 43 which is designed to be attached to the steering Wheel or to the steering post as shown in Fig. 1. The base 43 carries four independent terminals 342, 352, 362 and 372 which are respectively connected by wires 343, 353, 363, and 373 to the lamps 34, 35, 36 and 37. Two switch blades E and F are pivoted at one end to the ends of the plate 42 and are adapted to swing either to the right or left to connect any desired lamp in circuit with the battery B, and thus light the lamp desired. It will be seen that it requires a separate movement of a switch member to light any one of the lamps and that the switch is so constructed that it is not necessary to pass from-[one signal through, another to reach the position. Such an arrangement avoids confusion and accisignal casing is secured to a orked bracket,

one arm of which constitutes the hollow tubular'part 45 and the other arm 46v of which is fastened to the underside of the casing of the signal. The shank 47 of the bracket is tubular so that the wires leading to the lamps may pass therethrough and its lower end is bent at right angles to fit into another tube 48. The bracket 47 may be moved up and down in the tube 48 and clamped by the screw 49at the desired height. The lower .end of the tube 48 is secured into a plate 50 on the body of the automobile so that it will be rigidly supported and a clamp '51 secured to thewind-shield of the automobile rigidly holds the bracket 47 in the desired position at the side of the windshield.

The novel features and the operation of the signal will be apparent from the foregoing description. While we have shown and described the construction in detail we do not wish to be limited to the exact form disclosed as it is obvious that numerous ..changes may be made therein without departingfrom the spirit of. the invention.

Having thus described the: invention what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is: c

1. An automobile signal comprising a casing having parts provided with means forindicating the operating intentions of the driver of the automobile, a lamp in the casing to illuminate means for indicating an intention to turn to the right, a second lamp in the casing to illuminate means for indifor indicating the operating intentions of the driver of the automobile, a lamp'in one of said compartments to illuminate means" therein for indicating an intention to turn to the-right, a second lamp in a second compartment to illuminate means in said second compartment for indicating an intention-to turn to the left, a third lamp in a third compartment to illuminate means for indicating an intention to drive straight ahead, the

meansvilluminated by said third lamp being visible only from the front and sides of the casing, and a fourth lamp in a fourth compartment to illuminate means for indicating an intention to stop, the means illuminated by said third lamp being visible only from the rear of the casing, the compartments containing said vthird and fourth lamps having a common opaque partition wall extending longitudinally of the casing between the front and rear walls thereof.

- 3. An automobile signal comprising a casing having parts provided with-characters to indicate. the operating intentions of the driver of-the automobile, said parts forming the front, rear and side walls of the casing, a transparent plate in front of each of said parts, the transparent plate at the rear being differently colored from those at the sides and front, a lamp in the casing "to illuminate a character or characters indicating an intention to turn to the right, a second lamp in the casing to illuminate a character or characters indicating an intention to turn to the left, a third lamp in the casing to illuminate a character or charac-.

I ters indicating an intention to drive straight ahead, and a fourth lamp in the'casing to illuminate avcharacter or characters indicating an intention to stop, the character or characters illuminated by said fourthlamp being visible only from the rear of said casing.

4:. An automobile signal comprising a casing consisting of a plate of metal bent so as to form the sides, top and bottom of the casing and having characters stamped therein for indicating the operating intentions of the driver of the automobile, partitions at different distances above the bottom and connecting said side portions to form compartments in the casing, a vertical partition between the bottom of the casing and the next horizontal partition above it and dividing the space below the bottom partition into two compartments, front and rear metal plates having characters stamped therein similar tothose in the sides for indicating 'the operating intentions of the driver of the automobile, transparent members facing the sides, front and rear of the casing and through which the aforesaid characters are visible, means for holding the metal plates at the front and rear and the transparent members facing them in position comprising a member detachably connected to the bottom of the casing, lamps in the compartments within the casing for illuminating the characters in the walls of the casing, and means whereby any one of said lamps may be lighted without first lighting and disconnecting another of said lamps,

5. An automobile signal comprising a casing having two partition walls extending between the front and rear walls of the easin and a third partition wall extending longitudinally of the front and rear walls, said partition walls dividing the interior of said easing into four compartments, two

*of said compartments being provided with indicating means on all sides thereof,'the

indicating means of one of said two compartments being provided for indicating an intention of thedriver of the automobile to turn to the right and the indicating means of the other of said two compartments being provided for indicating an intention of the driver to turn to the left, another of said four compartments being provided with means visible only from the front and sides of the casing for indicating an intention to drive straight ahead, and the fourth compartment being provided with means visible from the rear of the casing for indicating the intention of the driver to stop'the automobile.

In testimony. whereof We aifix our signatures.

HENRY C. WRIGHT. FRAN K W. ROSS. 

